Chinese social media users are ‘happier’ and write ‘less political’ messages
on their profiles than Westerners, according to a major new study.

Computer scientists at the Delft University of Technology in Holland and the Shanghai Jiaotong University studied 46 million messages posted on Twitter and the enormously popular Sina Weibo (a similar but non related Chinese service pronounced way-bore).

Eighty per cent of the Twitter users were US-based, while 95 per cent of the Sina Weibo users were Chinese.

Seventy-nine per cent of the messages posted on Sina Weibo were expressing positive sentiments, compared to 71 per cent on Twitter.

When people on Sina Weibo were discussing people or locations, Sina Weibo users became even more positive – while Twitter users were more negative.

The report said: “Whereas 16 per cent of tweets referred to ‘organisations’, only 3 per cent do on Sina Weibo. Part of this may reflect the preference of Chinese users for avoiding mentioning large groups such as political parties.”

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Westerners tend to post messages about a narrower range of topics. The study concluded: “The topics and concepts users discuss on Sina Weibo differ from Twitter (user interests are broader on Sina Weibo). This may reflect the fact that Chinese social media behaviour is more collectivistic in culture, and actual content of Chinese messages seems more important.”

Chinese social media users tend to use Sina Weibo more on a weekend, reflecting the lack of Chinese corporate use of the media.

Sina Weibo users publish on average 19 per cent more messages per day on the weekend than during the week, while Twitter users average 11 per cent less on the weekend.

Western users of social media tend to retweet information faster than Chinese users and share more links while using hashtags.

The professors behind the study think this partly reflect the “greater eagerness (and individualism) of Twitter users to see their post appear in public discussion”.

Anyone wishing to post on one of China's networks must now register with their real names, allowing the government to easily find them if they write anything contentious.

Not only has Sina Weibo largely displaced television and newspapers as the country's most important source of information, but it has reconfigured the relationship between the Communist party and its citizens.

The largely unfettered stream of news, gossip, entertainment, scandal and opinion on the website, all posted in real time, has confounded the Chinese government's attempts to cover up or play down issues, and has forced officials to pay more attention to the public.

Campaigners for freedom of information attacked the new rules, saying they would stop users from sharing sensitive information or opinions.

There were also widespread concerns that Sina's database of registrations could be hacked and private data spilt onto the web.

However, one senior Chinese official involved in monitoring the internet, who ironically asked not to be named, said the authorities were already capable of tracing the sources of any sensitive information.

"Having people register with their real names will not hamper Weibo.

This rule asks everyone to take responsibility for their speech and actions. There is no such thing as absolute freedom," he said.

"The people who have large followings on Weibo already use their real names. Celebrities have all been verified, for example. And it will not stop whistle-blowers: in fact, everyone will be able to see, transparently, how they are treated by the authorities.

"As for using the rules to catch people. Well, they do not need your real name information. The authorities can already find out when and where you logged in. They can find out exactly which computer was used. They do not need your name to catch you."